N.M. officials favor local control of voting process

Posted: Sunday, December 17, 2000

JANET BRESENHAMGlobe-News Staff Writer

CLOVIS, N.M. - Overall, election officials in New Mexico remain confident in the state's voting system and prefer to keep local control over voting methods despite a few glitches with the Nov. 7 general election.

New Mexico Bureau of Elections Director Denise Lamb said she believes New Mexicans should be proud of their system and the relative lack of problems with counting votes in the Land of Enchantment - especially compared to what she called "the fiasco in Florida."

Quay County Deputy Clerk Ellen White agreed that the state's voting system remains a good one.

"Overall, I think the election process in New Mexico is well in hand," White said. "I think Florida just had its own set of problems. But we were very satisfied with our system."

Union County Deputy Clerk Joyce Sowers said New Mexico voters should not lose faith in the system "just because the system overall is so flawed in Florida."

"I think New Mexico's voter system works quite well, and I'm very proud of it," Sowers said.

Although there was a software programming error with the voting machines in Roosevelt County that nearly caused 540 votes not to be read in the presidential election, Lamb and others said the fact that the problem was so quickly detected and corrected is commendable and should give voters faith in the system.

The state canvassing board ordered the Nov. 29-30 vote recount in Roosevelt County after initially it appeared that about 10 percent of voters did not make a selection in the presidential race, until later it was found that the machines had not read straight-party ballots because of the programming error.

Roosevelt County Clerk Joyce Lee Fraze said she believes the experience will cause the people involved in testing the machines to be even more thorough but that her confidence in the voting system has not been shaken.

"I'm still pleased with our machines and from the public, I haven't heard any negative comments on our ballots or our machines," Fraze said. "I guess that's because we were able to get ours corrected as soon as we could, and it was a simple programming error that we were able to discover early on."

Even election workers in other eastern New Mexico counties who paid close attention to the Roosevelt County recount said voters should keep in mind how easily the problem was remedied once it came to light.

"I think that was just a human error," Sowers said. "It was a simple error that was corrected easily and found quickly."

Roosevelt County uses one of New Mexico's two acceptable voting systems, which involves voters using a special pen to connect the arrow next to their chosen candidates on a paper ballot and then the ballot is scanned and read by a machine.

Some other parts of New Mexico use a direct recording electronic method that involves voters going into the booth and pushing an electronic button corresponding to the candidates they select, Lamb said.

But for absentee voting in all New Mexico counties, the connect-the-arrow system is used as a standardized system statewide because the nature of absentee voting requires a physical ballot that can be mailed, Lamb said.

In New Mexico, the voting methods are approved by the state and then the choice of which type to use is left up to individual counties, which Fraze said she hopes will continue in order to allow some input from voters about their preferred systems.

However, the person involved with supervising last month's Roosevelt County recount process - 9th Judicial District Judge Bill Bonem - said the experience did give him pause when it comes to contemplating future elections.

"I think the process works, but with the guidance of human experience, where we learn from what happens," Bonem said. "Based on my own experience, I may never be totally confident that my ballot has been counted because you know that problems can occur."

Bonem said he believes that perhaps "the time has come for us to utilize a common voting machine which has the least possibility for error," while at the same time he acknowledged that even a standardized system would be subject to human and machine error, including computer problems.

But other New Mexico election officials said they would hate to see local control fall to uniform federal control for many reasons, including the enormous cost of switching systems nationwide and the ethical dilemma of who would decide which method to use and the monopoly that would create for the maker of the chosen voting system.

"That's not a direction I want to see New Mexico go," Lamb said. "The other thing to remember is that no machine is perfect all the time because a machine is only as good as the people using it. As much as we rely on machines, there's always going to be some type of human or programming error possible."

Fraze said she believes the cost involved with standardization would be "astronomical" and she remains concerned about who would decide the standards to be used.

"I think local control is usually better on just about anything, including voting," Fraze said. "With federal control, you don't know what you'd end up with."

White said she cannot foresee Quay County wanting to switch systems unless forced to by federal mandate.

Sowers raised the point that a standardized system does not guarantee that voters would have the best machine. She thinks it would be wrong to standardize the voting system just for presidential races because she believes all races at all levels are equally important.

Curry County Deputy Clerk Mario Trujillo, who will become the Curry County Clerk next month, said he believes one positive aspect of all the election brouhaha this year will be that state lawmakers likely will be more receptive to suggestions about possible changes to improve the election process without giving up local control.

For example, many election workers in New Mexico have lobbied unsuccessfully in the past for condensing and simplifying the wording on statewide ballot questions dealing with bond issues and other election topics to make the ballots less cumbersome and more understandable to voters, Trujillo said.

Lamb said she hopes the country, including New Mexico, will not rush to judgment and risk being "overly hasty" in trying to reform the election system based largely on the problems in Florida.

"We need to look at the lessons learned and learn those lessons and not make the same mistake twice," Lamb said. "But we don't need to throw the baby out with the bath water, as they say. New Mexico has good standards in place, and I think our system works. At least we don't have punch ballots with hanging chads and pregnant chads and dimples and pimples."